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Syrian Rebels Reported to Take Key City After Heavy Fighting Massacre of Syrian Soldiers in Iraq Raises Risk of Widening Conflict
(about 3 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian rebel fighters seized much of the contested north-central city of Raqqa on Monday after days of heavy clashes with government forces, smashing a statue of President Bashar al-Assad’s father in the central square and occupying the governor’s palace, according to activist groups and videos uploaded to the Internet. BAGHDAD, Iraq — More than 40 Syrian soldiers who had sought temporary safety in Iraq from rebel fighters along the border were killed on Monday in an ambush. They were attacked by unidentified gunmen as the Iraqi military was transporting the soldiers back to Syria in a bus convoy, the government said. At least seven Iraqis were also reported killed in the ambush, which appeared to be the most serious spillover of violence into Iraq since the Syrian conflict began two years ago.
If the insurgents manage to gain and retain control of Raqqa, capital of Raqqa Province, it would signify a potentially important turn in the two-year-old Syrian conflict. Raqqa, a strategic city on the Euphrates River, would be the first provincial capital completely taken over by the armed resistance to President Assad. For the government, the loss of Raqqa would diminish the prospects that Mr. Assad’s military, now fighting on a number of fronts, could retake a vast swathe of northern and eastern Syria from the rebels. Ali al-Musawi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, accused “armed groups from the Iraqi and Syrian side” of coordinating the attack. He said Iraq would deploy more security forces on the border. Middle East experts said such a move raised the risk that the Iraqis could become more directly enmeshed in the Syrian conflict, underscoring how it threatens to destabilize a wider swathe of the region.
The Raqqa news coincided with reports from Iraq that at least 40 Syrian soldiers who had taken temporary refuge from rebels on the Iraqi side of the border in recent days were killed on Monday as the Iraqi military was transporting them back into Syria on a bus. Iraqi officials said the bus was damaged by bombs and that unidentified gunmen killed most of the occupants. “We will not allow any terrorist to enter the Iraqi lands,” Mr. Musawi said in a telephone interview. He said the ambush was partly the consequence of “sectarian speeches that encourage people to hate each other.”
The killings amounted to the most serious incident along the Iraq-Syria border since the anti-Assad uprising began, and further underscored how the conflict has spread into Syria’s neighbors. There is great concern that members of the Syrian insurgency, who are overwhelmingly Sunni, are getting support from the Sunni extremists in western Iraq, particularly in Anbar province, where resentment against the Shiite-led government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is high. Mr. Musawi did not specify which armed groups he was alluding to, but it was clear that he meant Sunni militant extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq. These groups have become increasingly emboldened by popular Sunni resentment against Mr. Maliki, a Shiite who is accused by critics of trying to marginalize Iraq’s Sunni population since the American occupation of Iraq ended in 2011.
Mr. Maliki’s spokesman, Ali al-Musawi, accused “armed groups from the Iraqi and Syrian sides” for orchestrating the attack and said Iraq was increasing the number of security forces along the Syrian border as a result. “We will not allow any terrorists to enter the Iraqi lands,” he said. The Al Nusra Front, a Sunni insurgent force in Syria that has become known for its audacious attacks on government targets, has links with Al Qaeda in Iraq, and American officials have blacklisted it as a terrorist organization. But many Iraqi Sunnis sympathize with the Syrian insurgents, who are overwhelmingly Sunni and whose clan relations span national boundaries.
Rebel videos posted on YouTube about the Raqqa takeover included the destruction of a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the former president and father of Bashar, whose family’s four-decade-old control of the country is now threatened by the insurgency. Footage showed anti-Assad activists pulling the statue down, its head smashing in the fall. “A number of us have been saying that Iraq is the one most affected by the meltdown in Syria,” said Joshua M. Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and curator of the Syria Comment blog, which has chronicled the Syrian conflict.
“In that region, the tribes go right across the Syrian border, and most of the people are related by blood,” he said. “They’re in one common struggle.”
Mr. Maliki has not expressed outright support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Mr. Assad’s allies in the region are the Shiite theocratic government of Iran and Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group that is a powerful political force in Lebanon. But last week, Mr. Maliki warned that a victory for the Syrian insurgency could create a Sunni extremist haven in Syria and incite sectarian mayhem in his own country as well as in Lebanon and Jordan. All three countries, along with Turkey, are hosts to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, mostly Sunnis.
According to accounts from Mr. Musawi and other Iraqi officials quoted by Western news agencies, the ambushed Syrian soldiers originally crossed into Nineveh Province, Iraq, over the weekend to escape attacks by insurgents at the Yaarubiyeh border crossing. In returning them, Iraqi soldiers put the Syrians on a bus headed for a different border post, in Anbar province, partly to avoid the same hostilities the Syrians had fled.
But the bus, part of an Iraqi military convoy, was attacked as it neared the al-Waleed crossing by gunmen armed with mortars, automatic weapons and improvised bombs, who appeared to have advance knowledge of the convoy route. Agence France-Presse quoted an Iraqi army officer, Lt. Col. Mohammed Khalaf al-Dulaimi, as saying that at least three vehicles were destroyed.
The Syrian state-run news agency SANA made no immediate mention of the ambush, but it quoted Mr. Maliki as saying he supports a peaceful solution and that “vandalism and the use of arms will lead nowhere.”
News of the ambush came as Syrian rebel fighters claimed other gains against the government on Monday, notably the seizure of the contested north-central city of Raqqa following days of heavy clashes. Rebel videos uploaded on the Internet showed activists smashing a statue of President Assad’s father, Hafez, in the central square to punctuate their victory.
If the insurgents manage to retain control of Raqqa it would be a potentially important turn in the conflict. Raqqa, a strategic city on the Euphrates River, would be the first provincial capital completely taken over by the armed resistance. For the government, the loss of Raqqa would diminish the prospects that Mr. Assad’s military, now fighting on a number of fronts, could retake large areas of northern and eastern Syria from the rebels.
The Local Coordination Committees, a network of anti-Assad activists in Syria, said the governor’s palace in Raqqa had been seized by insurgents. An activist reached by phone in Raqqa, Abu Muhammad, said he also believed that the palace had been “completely liberated.” The whereabouts of its loyalist occupants was not clear.The Local Coordination Committees, a network of anti-Assad activists in Syria, said the governor’s palace in Raqqa had been seized by insurgents. An activist reached by phone in Raqqa, Abu Muhammad, said he also believed that the palace had been “completely liberated.” The whereabouts of its loyalist occupants was not clear.
“The only place still under control of the regime, in the entire province of Raqqa, is the military security building,” the activist said. “Clashes are raging there right now between the heroes of the free army and regime forces.” “The only place still under control of the regime, in the entire province of Raqqa, is the military security building,” the activist said. “Clashes are raging there right now.”Earlier Monday, anti-Assad activists reported heavy fighting in Homs between rebels and government forces backed by tanks and warplanes..
Raqqa had been under insurgent siege for days, but a breakthrough came Saturday when government forces abandoned the city’s central prison. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based anti-Assad group with a network of observers inside Syria, said fighters from Al Nusra Front and other insurgent units seized the prison and released hundreds of inmates. The clashes in Homs, a central Syrian city that had been quiet recently, seemed to shift attention from the northern city of Aleppo, where fighting had swirled for days around the Khan al-Asal police academy. Both sides in the civil war, which has claimed an estimated 70,000 lives, acknowledged relatively high death tolls there.
Earlier Monday, anti-Assad activists reported heavy fighting was raging between rebels and government forces backed by tanks and warplanes in Homs, the central Syrian city that had been relatively quiet recently. The pro-government Al-Watan newspaper accused opposition fighters on Monday of massacring 115 police officers and wounding 50 at Khan al-Asal. On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 200 government soldiers and rebels had been killed.
Details of the clashes were imprecise, but the Syrian Observatory said fighting flared in several neighborhoods of Homs after government forces had launched an offensive to dislodge rebels on Sunday. In an interview published in The Sunday Times of London, Mr. Assad assailed Britain’s suggestion that it may provide more than just nonlethal aid to his enemies. He also restated his opposition to peace talks with armed insurgents.
An activist in Homs, contacted via Skype, who identified himself as Abu Bilal, said there had been a successions of “explosions that shook the entire city” on Monday and clouds of black smoke blanketed some neighborhoods. The Local Coordination Committees said there had been “fierce and continuous shelling from heavy artillery and rocket launchers” directed at insurgents in several areas. “How can we ask Britain to play a role while it is determined to militarize the problem?” Mr. Assad said. “How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists?”
The clashes seemed to shift attention from Aleppo, where fighting had swirled for days around the Khan al-Asal police academy in Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city and once regarded its economic heart, after months of attempts by the insurgents to storm it. William Hague, Britain’s foreign secretary, said Mr. Assad’s remarks “will go down as one of the most delusional interviews that any national leader has given in modern times.”
Both sides in the civil war, which started as a peaceful uprising almost two years ago and has now claimed an estimated 70,000 lives, acknowledged relatively high death tolls in the fighting for Khan al-Asal.

Duraid Adnan reported from Baghdad, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Hania Mourtada from Beirut, Lebanon, Alan Cowell from London and a New York Times employee from Damascus.

The pro-government Al-Watan newspaper in Syria on Monday accused opposition fighters of massacring 115 police officers and wounding 50 there.
On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 200 government soldiers and rebels died in the fighting. With other fatalities elsewhere, the Observatory said, the tally for the day stood at 260, among them 115 government troops, 104 rebels and 45 civilians.
The fighting coincided with new efforts by outsiders, including the United States, Britain and their allies, to support the rebels with nonlethal aid. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, has hinted, however, that Britain might consider arming the insurgents — a stance that prompted Mr. Assad to say in an interview published on Sunday that Britain was seeking to “militarize” the conflict.
In an interview published in The Sunday Times of London, Mr. Assad also restated his terms for peace talks that seemed likely to preclude any negotiations with rebels who are pressing the Obama administration to go beyond the $60 million in nonlethal aid promised by Secretary of State John Kerry last week.
“How can we ask Britain to play a role while it is determined to militarize the problem?” Mr. Assad said. “How can we expect them to make the violence less while they want to send military supplies to the terrorists?” The Syrian authorities call their armed adversaries terrorists.
Mr. Hague responded by saying: “I think this will go down as one of the most delusional interviews that any national leader has given in modern times.”
Britain plans to announce a new package of aid for the rebels this week, but Mr. Hague has declined to specify what it contains.
In the interview with The Sunday Times of London, Mr. Assad said he was “ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants, who surrender their arms.”

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, Lebanon; Alan Cowell from London; and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by an employee of The New York Times from Baghdad, and an employee of The Times from Damascus, Syria.